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LOS ANGELES — About an hour after the closest thing to a perfect baseball game possible, Freddie Freeman stood near home plate at Dodger Stadium, where he had just ended Game 1 of the World Series with an extra-inning grand slam, and tried to explain what had just happened. Over 10 innings and 3 hours, 27 minutes, the game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees morphed from a pitchers’ duel into a hitting and baserunning clinic into strategic theater into an indelible highlight among the 120 years of World Series. Baseball at its finest comes in many forms. This game somehow managed to cram them all into one.

The final score — Dodgers 6, Yankees 3 — does not scream classic. It is misleading. On Friday night, the 52,394 souls lucky enough to witness Game 1 in person beheld the rare sporting event that teems with hoopla only to find it exceeded. The two most famous franchises in baseball, genuine elites of their coasts, fought. And then with one swing, on a first-pitch 93 mph fastball from Nestor Cortes, Freeman managed to deliver the first walk-off grand slam in World Series history and limp around the bases 36 years after Kirk Gibson famously did the same.

“Just look at this game,” Freeman said, and he started listing everything that had unfolded. Four innings of shutout baseball. The Dodgers manufacturing a run on a sacrifice fly. Giancarlo Stanton countering with a towering two-run home run. The Dodgers punching back with a run off Yankees closer Luke Weaver. The Yankees seemingly going ahead on what appeared to be a Gleyber Torres home run, only for it to be ruled interference when a Dodgers fan reached over the fence to snag it, which was confirmed by replay. New York tagging Los Angeles’ best reliever, Blake Treinen, for a run in the 10th. And the tension of the bottom of the 10th: a walk and an infield single to bring up Shohei Ohtani, whose foul out to left advanced the runners to second and third, opening up a base for Yankees manager Aaron Boone to intentionally walk Mookie Betts, giving Freeman the matchup against Cortes, who hadn’t thrown a pitch since Sept. 18.

“Back-and-forth moments — that’s what creates classics,” Freeman said. “And I think we created one tonight.”

The tens of millions who watched it, in the United States and Japan and around the world, know that they did. Great baseball can be as filled with good (Jazz Chisholm Jr. stealing second and third before scoring in the 10th inning) as it is with bad (he was able to do so because of Treinen’s slow delivery). It can include great defense (Dodgers shortstop Tommy Edman saving a run in the sixth knocking by keeping a grounder in the infield) and unsightly (both of the Yankees’ corner outfielders playing doubles into triples).

“Some people think a slugfest is a good game,” Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy said. “Some people think a pitcher’s duel is a good game. I don’t know. I think if you just add a little bit of all the elements, it’s pretty fun.”

This game had plenty. Before the first pitch, there was already built-in tension for the starters: Gerrit Cole and Jack Flaherty, two right-handers who grew up in Southern California. The Dodgers had tried desperately to sign Cole when he was a free agent, and the Yankees tried to trade for Flaherty in July only to back away, and the two men, now playing against their one-time suitors, spent the early innings one-upping each other.

Stanton’s sixth-inning home run and subsequent stare — not to mention Flaherty’s forlorn face after realizing the mistake he’d made — left the Dodgers trailing 2-1, and marked the beginning of the scheming between Boone and Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, who had left in Flaherty for the third time through the order and paid dearly. Boone turning to Weaver in the eighth after Ohtani doubled off the top of the wall and advanced to third thanks to New York’s sloppy defense was strategically sound but failed to prevent the Dodgers from tying the score.

Two innings later, it could have been Ohtani again or Betts or anyone, really, in the Dodgers’ top-to-bottom scary lineup. That it was Freeman, the 35-year-old first baseman, was as exceptional a denouement as imaginable.

“I was hoping Mookie would get a hit to take the pressure off him,” said Freeman’s father, Fred, to whom Freeman ran after the home run, interlocking hands through the netting that surrounds the field. “Then they walked him. And I was like, ‘Oh, Freddie, Freddie, Freddie.’ And then first pitch.”

Over the past month, watching Freeman has been painful. Not only because throughout the Dodgers’ first 11 playoff games he hadn’t mustered an extra-base hit. Freeman is clearly in pain. His sprained ankle throbs. His body aches. He is an eight-time All-Star, a future Hall of Famer, a World Series champion with Atlanta in 2021. He had been through a brutal year already, with his 3-year-old son, Max, suffering through a bout of Guillain-Barré syndrome. Freeman kept pushing through the pain, hoping the five days off since the NLCS would do his body enough good to do something memorable.

His first-inning triple, with him hobbling around the bases, indicated he was primed to. Little did anyone know an even better finale was to come.

“In my eyes, he’s a superhero, really, honestly and truly,” Dodgers reliever Anthony Banda said. “Watching him get through the injury and seeing the rehab he put in, the time he put in and just trying to get back to health, to get back on the field, doing everything he can — that speaks volumes of him as a player and as a person. He really cares about this group. He cares about the organization. He cares about winning, and that’s what drives us all.”

That’s true of everyone on the field Friday, including the Yankees, who now must recover from as knee-buckling a gut punch as can be thrown. The good news is, there remains plenty of baseball to be played, countless opportunities for the Yankees to do so, and the standard set for the rest of the series has gone from high to stratospheric.

To suggest any of the games, however many remain, can match Game 1 is unfair — unless this is the sort of series where magic courses throughout, where two teams are so good, so evenly matched, so ready for the moment, so keen to win, that the hype is simply an accelerant. Maybe Game 2 on Saturday night continues where Game 1 so clearly delivered.

“The ending,” Dodgers center fielder Kiké Hernández said. “I mean, it doesn’t get better than that.”

It does, actually, because Hernández is forgetting one thing. When it comes to the Dodgers and Yankees, the 120th World Series, this battle of the titans who have so much more great baseball in them, it’s just the beginning.

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O’s 1 out from being no-hit, score 4 to stun L.A.

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O's 1 out from being no-hit, score 4 to stun L.A.

BALTIMORE — Jackson Holliday homered with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning to deny Yoshinobu Yamamoto a no-hitter, and the Baltimore Orioles weren’t satisfied with that, rallying for four runs in the inning to defeat the Los Angeles Dodgers 4-3 in a delirious comeback Saturday night.

Emmanuel Rivera won it with a two-run single off Tanner Scott, who also allowed a walk-off homer to Orioles rookie Samuel Basallo the previous night. But the Orioles did the bulk of their damage against Blake Treinen (1-3), who relieved Yamamoto after Holliday’s homer. He gave up a double to Jeremiah Jackson, hit Gunnar Henderson and walked Ryan Mountcastle and Colton Cowser to make it 3-2.

Scott came on with the bases loaded, and Rivera lined a single to center.

According to Elias, the Dodgers are just the second team in the Expansion Era (since 1961) to lose a game in nine innings after carrying a no-hitter through 8⅔ innings. On July 9, 2011, the Dodgers broke up the Padres’ combined no-hitter to win 1-0.

Los Angeles had a win probability of 99.6% with two outs before Holliday’s ninth-inning homer, according to ESPN Analytics.

Yamamoto came within one out of the major leagues’ first no-hitter of 2025. He allowed only two baserunners, both on third-inning walks, before Holliday’s drive. The 27-year-old right-hander tied a career high with 10 strikeouts. He threw 112 pitches, also a career high since coming to the U.S.

Yamamoto was removed after that and received a standing ovation by fans of both teams.

Camden Yards has hosted only one no-hitter since opening in 1992, and it was by another Japanese star. Hideo Nomo threw one on April 4, 2001, for the Boston Red Sox against the Orioles.

Shohei Ohtani hit an RBI grounder in the third. Mookie Betts added a run-scoring single in the fifth and an RBI triple in the seventh.

The Dodgers have not thrown a no-hitter since May 4, 2018, when Walker Buehler, Tony Cingrani, Yimi Garcia and Adam Liberatore pitched a combined effort against the San Diego Padres in Mexico. The last solo no-hitter by the team was Clayton Kershaw’s on June 18, 2014, against Colorado.

The last time the Orioles were no-hit was by Japanese right-hander Hisashi Iwakuma of the Seattle Mariners on Aug. 12, 2015.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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UF ‘not good enough,’ says Napier after USF upset

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UF 'not good enough,' says Napier after USF upset

Holding a one-point lead in the final three minutes of Saturday’s game against South Florida, Florida shot itself in the foot with two costly penalties on defense.

Bulls kicker Nico Gramatica made the No. 13 Gators pay with his right leg.

18 1/2-point underdog South Florida pulled off its second upset in as many weeks when Gramatica, the son of former NFL kicker Martin Gramatica, booted a 20-yard field goal as time expired for an 18-16 victory in the Swamp.

South Florida routed No. 25 Boise State 34-7 at home in its Aug. 28 opener, its first victory over a ranked opponent since 2016. The Bulls had dropped 18 straight against ranked teams.

Saturday’s victory over the Gators was even more impressive. It was USF’s first road win against a ranked opponent since its 23-20 victory at No. 16 Notre Dame on Sept. 3, 2011.

According to ESPN Research, the Bulls are only the fourth team in the AP poll era (since 1936) to win their first two games against ranked opponents while being unranked, joining 1976 North Carolina, 2008 East Carolina and 2012 Oregon State.

The Bulls play at No. 5 Miami next week. They’ll try to become only the fifth team to start a season 3-0 with three wins over ranked opponents; 1987 Miami, 1985 Michigan, 1960 Iowa and 1954 Oklahoma were the others.

“We’ve got to be able to go handle success,” USF coach Alex Golesh said. “We’ve just got to continue to push forward. This ain’t the same old South Florida, my brother.”

It was Florida’s first defeat at home against a school from Florida, other than Florida State or Miami, since a 16-14 loss to Stetson in 1938.

“It’s not good enough,” Florida coach Billy Napier said. “We’ve got work to do. You guys know it. I know it. Anybody that watched it knows it. We got to take ownership of it, and we got to go back to work. That’s it.”

The loss will surely put more pressure on Napier, whose teams are 20-20 in his four seasons. Florida started 1-1 for the fourth straight season and its schedule is going to get even more treacherous with four straight games against ranked foes: at No. 3 LSU, at No. 5 Miami, home against No. 7 Texas and at No. 19 Texas A&M.

The Gators would owe Napier a $20.4 million buyout if he’s fired, including 50% in the first 30 days of his termination.

“We created it. We deserve it,” Napier said of the criticism. “If you play football like that, you’re going to be criticized. It comes with the territory, right? Only thing you can do is go get it fixed, and that’s what we’ll start working on tomorrow.”

South Florida gave Gramatica a chance to put them ahead with less than three minutes to go, but his 58-yard field goal attempt was short with 2:52 left.

Florida got the ball back at its 40-yard line and went three and out, taking only 27 seconds off the clock. Gators quarterback DJ Lagway misfired on two passes, including one to Vernell Brown III on third-and-8. Tommy Doman’s 47-yard punt pinned the Bulls at their 11-yard line with 2:25 remaining.

That’s when things fell apart for Florida. On second down, Gators cornerback Dijon Johnson was penalized for pass interference, giving USF a first down.

On the next play, Florida stuffed Alvon Isaac for no gain. But Gators defensive lineman Brendan Bett was penalized for unsportsmanlike conduct and ejected from the game for spitting in the face mask of USF offensive lineman Cole Skinner after the play. The 15-yard penalty gave the Bulls a first down at their 39-yard line.

On the next play, Byrum Brown threw a short pass to Alvon Isaac, who broke three tackles for a 29-yard gain. Brown threw a 12-yarder to Joshua Porter to get to the Florida 20.

Betts’ ejection came two days after Philadelphia Eagles star defensive tackle Jalen Carter was booted from the game for spitting on Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott in the Eagles’ 24-20 victory on Thursday night.

“I haven’t had that conversation with him yet,” Napier said of Bett. “We’ll take a good look at it, but it’s unacceptable. I think we’ve got a lot of players in that room as well that have the same belief that it’s unacceptable.

“When a guy does something like that, he’s compromising the team. He’s putting himself before the team. Everything the game is about, you’re compromising, so there will be lessons to be learned there. Yeah, it’s that simple.”

Florida was penalized 11 times for 103 yards, and a handful were costly. In the first half, the Gators committed two penalties that wiped out touchdowns on the same possession. A holding penalty negated Ja’Kobi Jackson’s 20-yard scoring run, and then a pass-interference penalty brought back Lagways’ 14-yard touchdown pass to Tony Livingston.

Florida had to settle for Trey Smack’s 36-yard field goal and a 6-3 lead.

“Not good enough, and it’s my responsibility,” Napier said. “I think when you evaluate the game, the red zone missed opportunities caught up with us, and we let them hang around. Certainly the penalties contributed to the game. It extended their drives, and it slowed down our drives.”

Lagway, who led the Gators to a four-game winning streak to end the 2024 season, didn’t look comfortable against USF’s defense, and Florida’s offensive line struggled to protect him. He completed 23 of 33 passes for 222 yards with one touchdown and one interception.

The Bulls took a 13-9 lead into the fourth quarter after Byrum Brown threw a 66-yard touchdown to Keshawn Singleton with 2:03 left in the third. Florida had a bad snap that resulted in a safety, giving USF a 15-9 lead with 13 seconds to go in the quarter.

The Gators went ahead 16-15 on Lagway’s 4-yard touchdown pass to Eugene Wilson II with 12:29 to go, which came after Vernell Brown’s 40-yard punt return.

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Ducks dominate after Gundy ‘pours gas on fire’

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Ducks dominate after Gundy 'pours gas on fire'

EUGENE, Ore. — A week that began with head coaches Mike Gundy and Dan Lanning trading barbs about each program’s budget ended with Oregon handing Oklahoma State a 69-3 loss — the worst of the Gundy era and the worst the program has seen since 1907.

“It never requires extra motivation for an opportunity to go out and kick ass,” Lanning said postgame regarding the message he sent his team. “But it never hurts when somebody pours gasoline on the fire.”

On Monday while speaking on his radio show, Gundy said Oregon is “paying a lot of money for their team,” citing $40 million as the amount he believed the Ducks spent on their roster last year. Gundy made several other comments about Oregon’s resources — he said “it’ll cost a lot of money to keep” quarterback Dante Moore and that he believes Oregon’s budget should determine the programs it schedules outside of the Big Ten.

“If you want to be a top-10 team in college football, you better be invested in winning. We spend to win,” Lanning said Monday in response. “Some people save to have an excuse for why they don’t. … I can’t speak on their situation; I have no idea what they got in their pockets over there.”

After Saturday’s win, Moore said Gundy’s comments hit “close to home” for him and the rest of the team and that the Ducks used them as motivation heading into the matchup.

“For him to attack Phil [Knight], Coach Lanning and our team was personal,” Moore, who threw for 266 yards and three touchdowns, said. “We were going to keep the foot on the neck and make sure we score these points and try to break the scoreboard.”

Break the scoreboard, they did. The Ducks had a 59-yard touchdown run on their second offensive play of the game and a 65-yard touchdown pass on their third offensive play of the game. Explosive plays were everywhere at Autzen as Oklahoma State’s defense provided little to no resistance. Oregon’s offense did not punt until the fourth quarter and totaled 631 yards to Oklahoma State’s 211 yards.

“It was a lot of fire going into this game,” Moore said.

The way Oregon came out of the gates, stepped on the gas pedal and didn’t relent until it was up 48-3 halfway through the third quarter, when it brought in the offensive backups, seemed very purposeful. The two pick-sixes that pushed the Ducks’ score into the 60s added insult to injury.

“It’s still about us,” Lanning said. “Our ability to ignore the noise is the thing that’s going to make us go.”

Lanning, as he did on Monday, said postgame that he has a lot of respect for Gundy and even noted that the result probably had Gundy saying “I told you so” regarding his comments about the disparity in resources between the two schools.

“When I made that comment, I was complimenting Oregon for what they had done,” Gundy said. “Second thing, which I said later in the week is, we’ve made commitments also, but we have to be better and fundamentally sound and execute.”

Gundy is now 4-10 over his past 14 games as the Cowboys’ head coach, and two of those losses — Saturday’s at Oregon and last year’s 52-0 loss to Colorado — are the worst of his career.

“Sometimes you’re going to play people that have the ability to run away from you,” Gundy said. “We gotta look at that and see where we’re at. We didn’t play good enough, in the systems that we had, to put ourselves in that position.”

As the heat rises around the coach who has helmed the Oklahoma State program since 2005, Gundy’s son, Gavin, took to X to defend his father.

“Mike Gundy IS Oklahoma State football,” Gavin said as part of a long thread of posts. “Period. As QB, he set records in the Barry Sanders era. As coach, he stacked 160+ wins, 19 straight bowls, a Big 12 title, two Fiesta Bowls, multiple Top-10 finishes, & sent dudes to the NFL year after year. He’s the winningest coach in OSU history & the most important name this program has EVER had. Without him, you’d have nothing to brag about, nothing to watch, nothing to cry about”

Soon after, Gavin’s thread was deleted from the site.

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